Wazi Maret

Wazi Maret is an award-winning, radical development strategist, educator and organizer. As a member of the development team at the Transgender Law Center (TLC), the largest national trans-led organization in the U.S., Wazi works with the development director in sustaining TLC’s work to change laws, policies, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression.

Before joining TLC, Wazi served as the interim development director at the Transgender Gender-Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), where he helped secure the funding and resources needed to stabilize TGIJP’s grassroots work with transgender people in jails and prisons across California. Previous to this, he served as a youth educator with Youth ALIVE! where he was awarded for his violence prevention programming with youth of color in Oakland. Additionally, Wazi is committed the critical work of Black liberation through art and other forms of creative resistance like direct action and community organizing and contributes to Bay Area organizing efforts through Black Lives Matter and Black Youth Project 100.

Wazi’s own philosophy in development has made him a strategic player in helping connect the most impacted individuals, communities and organizations to the wealth and resources needed not only to sustain community work on the frontlines, but also to build community-driven pipelines toward self-determination and freedom. He believes firmly in utilizing strategic development as a tool for change towards collective liberation and centers this philosophy in his commitment to Black and trans liberation.